Headliner.

[Slacker]

My headliner sags down to my head. (I see now where they get the name. :D) What's the best way to fix this? I mean, I could staple it, but I feel it'll start sagging again soon. I'm not really in the mood to completely redo it. Is it possible to just cut it out and just paint it with fabric paint to make it look right or would that just look off?

Thanks

[87Cutlass Ciera]

My headliner sags too (shame cause thats the only interior defect) what I first used to do was stick a bunch of bobby pins in the headliner, but when it gets cool/damp it gets looser and when it gets war/dry it gets tighter and eventually the bobby pins come out and you end up getting in a mess :p I had an idea that you could slice a few holes or perhaps one long slice down the middle and then use a fabric glue that dries invisible, this does work, I've used it before (except mine wasn't invisible, so it turned out white...) My cousin has a 6000 and he just tore the headliner out, all you get is this hard foam stuff, it would probably do just as well, except if you rub it, it flakes. There's lots you can do! Good luck!
CRC

[mickstan_VR]

Common problem. Been there, done that too. Best fix is to take it somewhere and have it fixed by a professional. It'll cost ya' about 100 bucks +/-. 2nd best fix is to take it out, scrape it, and paint it.

[86euro]

They are not hard to recover. The only difficult part is actually getting the headliner board to fit through the passenger side front door. Once its out, pull all of the material off and then scrub off all the old foam with a wire brush. Get an aerosol can of general trim adhesive and whatever material you wish then just glue it on and trim the edges.

Or you can just use paint stir sticks to hold it up off your head. Simply put them in between the plastic side trim and the headliner.

[notsoslimshady76]

Every car, I've been lucky and found a good one in the JY for less than 20 bucks. I think I'm lucky though. Shake n Bake's is perfect

[a1veedubber]

They are not hard to recover. The only difficult part is actually getting the headliner board to fit through the passenger side front door. Once its out, pull all of the material off and then scrub off all the old foam with a wire brush. Get an aerosol can of general trim adhesive and whatever material you wish then just glue it on and trim the edges.



I just did this to my 86 Coupe, it was not too hard & would have been much easier if I didnt have the sunroof to trim in! I bought the adhesive for about $10.00 and spent about $25.00 on the material. I also installed a roof console at the same time! Heres a couple of pics:

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z269/a1veedubber/86%20Eurosport%20Interior%20re-do/HeadlinerI.jpg

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z269/a1veedubber/86%20Eurosport%20Interior%20re-do/HeadlinerII.jpg

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z269/a1veedubber/86%20Eurosport%20Interior%20re-do/Roofconsole-Installed.jpg

[LordDurock]

wow great thread thanks a v dubber
i headerd of useing stapes and genral trim glue form 3m but it looks like the best way to go is what v dub did.

[Tuddi]

More pics of the final look would be highly apreciated. Well done a1veedubber !

[87Cutlass Ciera]

The Question I have is how to get the headliner down? Take off all the trim around the sides of it and it should come down?
Thanks
CRC

[CieraSL92]

Yeah, remove all the trim, obviously dome light too and it will come down. Not sure how you'd get it out of the car.. maybe pull the seats and wiggle it out the front door or something?

[bodega1027]

Mine just sort of rolled up and came out - I pulled it out because the headliner was completely missing when I bought it. I keep thinking I'm going to get around to fixing it, but I've got more pressing issues at the moment... and I'll admit, I kind of like the bare metal ceiling...

I had to take down the trim and the headlight housing. There were some velcro bits in the front too (maybe the rear... this was three weeks ago though, and my memory ain't great).

My dad had an '86 6000LE once, and he replaced the material on his with Coca-Cola blanket material... he even got my mom to redo his visors. I'm planning on just using some grey fleece material or something myself... the ones I ran into at the JY were just WAY too dirty.

Oh, and there were some clips... if you haven't pulled it down already let me know, and I'll see about snapping some shots of my removed headliner and the points on the ceiling.

[MR2Di4]

For a quick fix try using super-strong magnets. The best come from from the insides of computer hard drives. They should have strong enough attraction to the steel roof to go through the fabric and cardboard backing and help hold things up...

[86euro]

For a quick fix try using super-strong magnets. The best come from from the insides of computer hard drives. They should have strong enough attraction to the steel roof to go through the fabric and cardboard backing and help hold things up...

That's a great idea! I wonder if speaker magnets would work well too?

For removing the headliner board from the car, just wiggle it out the passenger side front door opening. It can be done even if the front seats don't recline. Obviously, coupes and wagons are no problem at all.

[ochy38]

Hate to bring up an old thread, but its a good thread and im having some issues. I tried to replace my headliner earlier this week but made some stupid mistakes. Now that im gonna attempt again, im a little confused about cleaning off the old glue. When i try to get the remnants of foam and old glue off, it kinda comes apart and the "fibers" of the board are exposed(kinda like fiberglass insulation). Is this ok/ the correct procedure if i bring the whole board down to it? i cant seem to figure out how to get the old glue off without this happening. It seems like kind of a grey area as to whether i am damaging the board or not..

[Nexum]

Thanks for the pics veedubber!

[brp2z]

i think i posted a step by step about this including the cleaning part in a previous thread.
may try the search

[a1veedubber]

I am posting this here to answer a couple of questions that were PM'ed to me, but I want everyone to see the pics & ETC in case they are tackling a headliner. First off, once I had the headliner out, I simply pulled off the covering. My foam portion of the fabric was completely deteriorated, so I used a shopvac with a crevice tool & simply vacuumed of the remaining foam. That was it. There was a bit of remaining foam residue, but it was stuck well & did not cause any problems.

Secondly, I used contact cement that came in a pail, I did NOT use the 3m spray adhesive. The reason for this is that the spray adhesive has a lot of air in it & does not provide as good of a bond. Plus, it is MUCH more expensive!

Lastly, about the console. I attached the console's bracket to the metal support header that runs across the top of the windshield. I then cut a very small hole in the finished headliner, much smaller than would be needed. Then, I installed the headliner, and trimmed the hole around the console bracket. Then, I slipped the console on, drilled the two front holes & bolted it up!

I have not yet hooked up the maplights that are on the console, my interior is coming all back out this summer for some audio work, and will do that at that time! Hopefully these pictures halp with showing how I attached the roof console. (I would have used a larger full console, but I am blessed with a factory Vista-vent! :rock:

Pictures:::::

The roof:
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z269/a1veedubber/86%20Eurosport%20Interior%20re-do/86EurointeriorstrippedV.jpg

The bracket attached to the header:
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z269/a1veedubber/86%20Eurosport%20Interior%20re-do/Roofconsolebrackettestfit.jpg

The bracket sticking through the headliner( I did have to do a little bending to the two ears that stick through here to get the console to slide on correctly as the U-van roof I got this console from was much flatter!!):
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z269/a1veedubber/86%20Eurosport%20Interior%20re-do/Roofconsole-Bracketinstalled.jpg

[Oklahoma]

I've done two of these and they were both on wagons. My system is to lay the foam board down on the floor in my basement (after it's been scraped and all) and cut the headliner material roughly (leaving room for error) while it's laid on top of the board. Then I attach the material to the wall using two thumbtacks at the top. I have the board laid on the floor in front of the headliner. I spray two coats of adhesive on the board while someone else sprays two coats on the material, the each of us unhook one of the tacks and together we carefully lay the material onto the board. The reason I do this is because the adhesive directions say to apply two coats to each mating surface and attach them within two minutes of starting to spray the adhesive and this is the fastest way I know of to do it. I get them from WLS headliners. I did the first one over two years ago and it still looks good.

[ochy38]

thanks, a1veedubber. That helps me alot. unfortunately... i screwed up the board during my first attempt, and this is the result:
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e380/ochy38/SSPX0276.jpg
(dont pay any attention to the foam pieces)
So, i guess my new question is this: am i going to destroy the board if i remove all of the foam residue/glue and expose the tan part? or would i be ok if i just rip the hanging part off and glue the headliner to whats still there?

[86euro]

Wow, that's an awfully large chunk! I would try to glue that big rip back down, then glue the new material on.

[a1veedubber]

Wow, that's an awfully large chunk! I would try to glue that big rip back down, then glue the new material on.

Definitely! The gray remnants of foam are what I glued mine to. I used my hands & a shop vac to remove any loose stuff & glued to the stuff I couldn't get off.

[ochy38]

ok sounds good. basically what happened was i should have gotten more material, but i only got like 5 inches extra and left a little overlap on one side when i started placing. It was goin swell until i got to the other end and was an inch short... so in a last ditch effort i tried to remove what was already glued and this is the result.. oh well rookie mistake i guess lol. Where can you get the can of contact cement? ive looked at all my local parts stores and all they have is spray headliner adhesive

[a1veedubber]

I used two small cans. The first one I bought at the upholstery supply store I got the fabric at, the other one I bought at a local hardware store.

[ochy38]

i see. Ill take a look around today. Thanks for the help!

[SHAQUITA85]

The previous owner of my 85 2 door celebrity junked the whole headliner board and all. Our local JY's don't hold on to anything over 10 years old. Anybody have a source for one? I was kind of thinking about just covering the bare metal with a bunch of performance stickers I have acquired over the years, but it would be kinda of nice to have a headliner. Any help would be appreciated.

[white89euro]

Hello a1veedubber,

Would you have a pic of the finished installation on that roof console?

I don't have the vista sun roof, but I did pull and reinstall my headliner in the fall of 2005. That was on my 1990 Century wagon. I had a JC Whitney headliner fabric kit installed by an auto interior shop. Before that was done I cut holes in the head liner to allow for installation of a roof center console. The console comes from the 1990-1996 Olds Sihouette vans - full console including the map lights, sunglasses pocket, remote opener pocket etc. It is a perfect fit and will work in any closed-roof A-body.

George

[86euro]

The previous owner of my 85 2 door celebrity junked the whole headliner board and all. Our local JY's don't hold on to anything over 10 years old. Anybody have a source for one? I was kind of thinking about just covering the bare metal with a bunch of performance stickers I have acquired over the years, but it would be kinda of nice to have a headliner. Any help would be appreciated.

JY is pretty much it. The sedan headliner may be the same (flat rear window only), but I have not yet felt like getting my coupe headliner down from the loft in the garage to compare them.

[SHAQUITA85]

JY is pretty much it. The sedan headliner may be the same (flat rear window only), but I have not yet felt like getting my coupe headliner down from the loft in the garage to compare them.
I was wondering if the sedan headliner might be the same size. Thanks for the help, i'll check into it.